Taking deep breaths with ear muffs drowning out the noise, safety glasses on and stance at the ready, students begin to practice as air pistols start firing. In the basement of the Military Science Building, Aggies take aim, preparing for their next Team USA-hosted tournament.
The Texas A&M Pistol Club is a recreational-recognized club that handles Olympic-style .22 LR caliber target pistols and .177 caliber compressed air pistols, while promoting Olympic-style shooting and gun safety. From the practice range to a tournament at the Olympic Training Center, the officers said they strive to provide a fun but engaging experience for members of any skill level.
Although experience isn’t required, manufacturing and mechanical engineering technology junior and President Austin Stone’s achievements began long before his journey with the pistol club. Stone stumbled onto the club after competing against them while in high school for the Texas State Rifle Association team.
“I didn’t do it competitively, just for fun as a kid,” Stone said. “But in high school, I ended up going to some random pistol training class and got picked up from the guy that was running it to do it competitively. So I did it for four years in a different pistol event, and now I do Olympic Rapid Fire Pistol.”
Though the club uses Olympic-style pistols, the Rapid Fire Pistol event is not one it participates in; this is Stone’s “side niche” event that he enjoys on his own accord.
Stone has also represented Team USA in junior national shooting competitions, in both South Korea and Germany. Though he has competed intensely and continues to do so, Stone said he appreciates the community the club has offered him on campus.
“When I joined, it was a lot of just shooting,” Stone said. “But, this fall and spring, every officer has a month to choose an activity for the team to do; so we’re making steps toward more social stuff.”
Neuroscience senior and Vice President Sophia Prill joined the club two years ago, after seeing flyers around campus and deciding to try out with minimal shooting experience under her belt.
“I’d only shot once before in my life, but, ‘Hey, it’s $15, I might as well go try out,’” Prill said. “And so I went and I did well and really liked it, so when I got the email of, ‘You made the team,’ I started going to meetings, and it was really cool.”
Prill said she went to Open Shoot — the club’s tryout event — three times just because she enjoyed it so much. The friendships and stress relief provided by the pistol club made it the perfect place for her, she said.
“It’s really helped me make friends on the team, giving me people to hang with,” Prill said. “And it’s really stress-relieving, too. You get out of a test, you can go and shoot a target, but it’s definitely helped me to find my people on campus, and it’s a very small niche group.”
Kinesiology junior and Treasurer Makayla Caldwell grew up shooting as a hobby on her family’s ranch. She had heard about the club from a friend who knew about her experience and invited her to an Open Shoot. She even said her first tryouts were terrible, despite her background.
“It was so bad,” Caldwell said. “I was kind of embarrassed because it is a different form of shooting than normal; it was one-handed, we had to stand sideways and close one eye. It just wasn’t what I expected. So I didn’t do great my first day, but my friend encouraged me to come back and try again, and I did significantly better.”
According to Caldwell, Stone and Prill, the pistol club provided them a way to escape the stress of college life and to pursue or maintain a hobby of theirs. All three officers talked highly of their team, and one distinct memory stuck with them.
“My first semester, we went with the team to Colorado for a match at the Olympic Training Center,” Stone said. “It was a 13-hour drive up there, but was the last semester before a lot of the old team members graduated and then we had the new members, so it was a big mesh of old Ags and new Ags and was just a lot of fun.”
Whether a member is an expert, a complete novice or just doing it for fun , the officers emphasized the inclusion of anyone who wants to give it a shot. They provide all equipment and pistols, no personal items necessary, which Stone says is really nice and convenient for tournaments away from campus.
“It’s a lot of fun to spend time on, a good de-stress from class,” Caldwell said. “You can go do your thing when you’re ready and practice. … Oh, I love it, it’s a lot of fun.”
The pistol club has some hidden talents; most recently, Stone placed first in the men’s sport and air pistol events, and Prill placed second for the women’s air pistol, as well as many other top-3 contenders for other events, according to the Pistol Club Instagram.
It doesn’t matter if someone is in the club for their own competitive reasons or for something to get away from class, it’s what they’re there for, Stone said.
“We just want to introduce people to shooting sports and safety with firearms, but mainly introducing people to a sport we love,” Stone said. “Competitive shooting is kind of a niche thing, but it doesn’t require equipment or experience to be on our team, and that’s what makes it fun.”
